Matthew 5:1-12
Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called God’s children.”
(Matthew 5:9)
Here’s a question for us today - why do we have Remembrance services?
One reason is to remember those who died in two world wars. We want to pay tribute to the many people who had to take part in the horror of these conflicts and especially those who lost their lives as a result. But as the years go on, there are less and less people left alive to remember - less and less who can claim to have known the wars and experienced loss at first hand. Also, there are countless millions of other people who have died in all sorts of other circumstances and we don’t have an annual service just to think of them. British servicemen and women face conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of course there are other conflicts on the go - all around the world.
So there is another reason why we have this special service.
It is so we can learn.
So we can think about war.
So we can be aware.
So we can wake up.
So we can realize the cost of war and reflect on the need to try and do all we can to prevent there being future wars.
The issues of war and peace come up each “Remembrance”. Sadly, they never go out of date. And that’s why we do it. To help us to remain aware of the importance of this issue. Our faith itself is a call to awareness. Christianity is a kind of challenge to us all to wake up and be aware.
Be aware of the presence of God around you.
Be aware of your spiritual nature.
Be aware of the impact you have on your neighbours.
Be aware of the needs of others.
Be aware of what you are doing in God’s name.
Be aware of what’s going on in the world.
Be aware of the need to seek peace
Remembrance services began after the Fist World War – 1914-1918. The “Great War” was the “war to end all wars” – a war like that would never happen again. Yet just a few years later came another war in its own way just as terrible, and which lasted longer still. What may escape our attention (as we remember these two very different wars) is how the whole business of war has moved on. In the olden times the combatants wore uniforms and charged at each other from one end of a field to the other. But the last century produced more changes than all the preceding centuries put together, and that includes changes in how wars are fought and who are involved.
At the beginning of the 20th century nearly 90% of wartime deaths were military. By the middle of the century (around WWII), that had dropped to 50%. By the end of the century, by 2000, 90% of all wartime deaths are now civilian. 90% of people killed in war are not actually fighting in the war!
We need to be aware.
We need to be aware of the facts.
This day of Remembrance, when we reflect on the cost of war, is a day for using our minds. Because the real challenge of this day is not just to honour those who have died by having a wee service or standing for a silence. That is good in itself, but if that is all we do we are not doing enough. The real challenge is to honour those who have died by acting to make things better. That means our striving to build a better world where the need for war is lessened, and where we find new ways of working together as nations, and where we find ways for solving disputes without killing thousands of people.
Today is a day to be quiet and respectful of those who have died in conflict. But it’s also a day to challenge us - a day to shake us up. We need to wake up. Wake up to the facts about war.
Wake up to the fact that since the end of WWII, war has continued all over the world.
Wake up to the fact that over 10 million children have died as the result of war in the last ten years alone. Wake up to the fact that we don’t count the civilian dead in places like Iraq. (The results of such a count would be too shocking to contemplate).
Wake up to the fact that our media is manipulated by powerful political forces. (How else did we get into Iraq in the first place?) Wake up to the fact that we in Britain are the world’s second biggest arms exporter. Wake up to the fact that we are starting to build a new generation of useless nuclear weapons in breach of our own promises to reduce our weapons.
If we stand to honour those who have died in war, and we say prayers for peace but fail to wake up and to protest in the face of things that make peace less likely then we will have failed indeed.
Let me single out two of the things I have just mentioned. Here are just two things which Christians (and all people of good will) ought to be united in opposing - if we are serious about peace for our world.
One is the immoral trade in selling arms. The arms trade accounts for billions and billions of pounds every year. The main perpetrators of the arms trade amass huge profits, whilst the despicable regimes which are courted, use the weapons and police equipment and torture equipment on their own people. We, of course, as a nation, speak out and condemn these abuses, but we are still happy to pocket the profit from selling weapons to dictators.
I’d like to think that we would all be disappointed that the UK should be part of this trade - but let’s just pause once again for that statistic. The UK is the second biggest arms seller in the world over the last few years. And in fact, last year (2007), we were actually number one. For once we beat the Americans. Never mind Russia. Never mind China. The USA and UK lead the way on profits for arms sales. That’s something for us to be ashamed of.
The second thing concerns our government’s decision to build a new generation of nuclear weapons in defiance of our promise to the rest of the world. Our promise? Yeah. We made a promise.
In order to try and make the world safer, an agreement was set up called the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The idea is that no new country should develop nuclear weapons. In return, those that had them would start to get rid of them – to phase them out. Whenever we hear in the news that a new country is thinking about a nuclear programme they are quickly condemned. “You can’t do that!!!” they are told - in no uncertain terms. But meanwhile we are determined to design and build new weapons for ourselves - whilst telling the rest of the world that they can’t do what we do. This is sheer hypocrisy and helps to make things less stable.
These are both things that keep the world in a very unsafe position. And neither of them have actually got anything to do with defence.
These are all facts that successive UK governments (of whatever persuasion) like to keep quiet from us. They don’t say much about these things. Because these are all facts that should disturb any caring person - and these are facts that make peace less, (rather than more), likely.
Be aware of what is happening.
There is a great vision in Isaiah, echoed also in Micah. We have heard it and we have sung it today already.
“He will settle disputes among great nations.
They will hammer their swords into ploughs
and their spears into pruning-knives.
Nations will never again go to war,
never prepare for battle again.
Now, descendants of Jacob, let us walk
in the light which the Lord gives us.”
(Isaiah 2:4-5)
This talks about a time when countries stop preparing for war and instead concentrate their minds and resources to what is peaceful. This talks about a time when nations consider that their ultimate security lies not with powerful weapons - but with God – the Lord of creation. Clearly, that day has not yet come. But the actions we take today can take us a bit nearer (or a bit further away) from that day.
You know, there are two groups of people.
One group says: “Forget it. Unrealistic. A dream that can be ignored.” The other group says: “We want to do whatever we can to help bring that dream to reality.”
Our duty as Christians is to belong to the second group. Because the dream has been given to us by God.
Do you know something? War is not inevitable.
War is not inevitable.
Now disputes and disagreements are inevitable. That’s a fact. But we don’t need to settle arguments by starting wars. War can be outlawed - just as slavery was outlawed, and child labour was outlawed. Years ago people would have laughed at any one who tried to condemn or change these thing. “It’s just the way of the world. Just the way things are. And always will be”. But the scoffers were wrong. It took many years. But these (and other things) did change.
A few days ago, a black man became President elect in the United States. Imagine that. In a country famed for its slave trade and segregation. In a country where, (until the last years of the 19th century) two black people weren’t even allowed to marry each other. Unthinkable. But it happened.
Barack Obama is to be President. Things can (and do) change.
War can become unacceptable too.
War can be a thing of the past.
War is not inevitable.
We need to wake up and see that this is so and play our part in working for that change.
Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called God’s children.”
(Matthew 5:9)
As followers of Jesus Christ, our responsibility is to be part of the movement that seeks to bring that day closer when disputes can be settled peacefully without the loss of thousands and thousands more innocent lives - when disputes can be settled peacefully without killing strangers.
This is the movement we must all be part of.
It’s why we have Remembrance Sunday.
It’s why God gave Isaiah and Micah that dream to share.
It’s why we call Jesus, the Prince of Peace.